Study of Fluconazole Release from O/W Cream and Water Soluble Ointment Bases

Aims: Study the release of fluconazole from different O/W creams and PEG ointments.
Study Design: In this study, different formulations were prepared with changing one of the added excipients and study the effect of this change on the drug release and then the selected formulations were subjected to antifungal activity study.
Place and Duration of Study: Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt, between December 2011 and March 2012.
Methodology: O/W creams were prepared with changing either fatty alcohol type or the concentration of the added emulsifying agent. Also, the PEG ointments were prepared with changing the type of the liquid PEG (low molecular weight). Then, the viscosity and the fluconazole release from the prepared formulations were studied.
Results: Changing the fatty alcohol type from stearyl to cetostearyl and cetyl alcohol in the O/W creams caused an increase in the viscosity and a decrease in the drug release. Also, changing the liquid PEG from PEG 400 to PEG 600 resulted in an increase in the formulation viscosity and subsequent decrease in the drug release. Both F1 and F6 showed a good inhibition to the fungal growth against Candida albicans and Trichophyton mentagrophyte using cup plate method, also PEG base showed a slight fungal growth inhibition.
Conclusion: Results obtained showed that the PEG ointment formulations exhibited higher fluconazole release after three hours over the O/W cream formulations. Also, the nature of the PEG base may be adjunctive to the efficacy of the antifungal agent.